The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources says it will go all out to stop individuals and companies busily involved in illegal mining.
Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Benito Owusu Bio, says government with the help of Operation Halt will flush out all illegal miners.
Speaking to journalists after a fact-finding mission to the Tano Nimiri forest reserve in the Western Region, Mr. Bio said such impunity must end.
“What I have seen is too much, not sustainable, and it needs to stop. There are people living in here, and they must all wake up because people are [engaged in galmsey] with impunity, and we cannot accept this”, he said.
Akonta Mining Company Limited was said to have been operating unlawfully in the Nimri Tano forest reserve in the Amenfi West Municipality.
According to the government, while the mining company has a lease to undertake mining operations in some parts of Samreboi, the company has no mineral right to undertake any mining operations in the Tano Nimiri forest reserve.
The Lands Ministry has already directed the Forestry Commission to ensure that the company does not carry out any operation in the forest and to take the necessary action against any person found culpable in the matter.
There have been calls for the prosecution of persons running Akonta Mining Limited’s operation in the forest reserve.
Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, whom many have said is behind the mining in the forest reserve has denied reports he is involved in illegal mining.
“I am appealing to them to use the law. They should do their investigations, and we should let the law work,” he said on his TV station, Wontumi TV.
Mr. Boasiako also responded to speculation that he is involved in illegal mining, saying, “I want to tell the public that I am not into galamsey.”
“I have a large scale company which Akonta mining is under… All the required documents I have, I will make all available,” he added.
